Description
Book SynopsisWho were these intermarried Germans? Why did Hitler and Goebbels give in to the protesters and release two thousand Jews? Resistance of the Heart is a powerful response to these questions. Using interviews with survivors and thousands of Nazi records never before examined in detail, Nathan Stoltzfus has reconstructed an inspiring story...
Trade Review"Stoltzfus has written a powerful, exhaustively researched report on that rare episode of open, successful resistance ... Interwoven here are the poignant, compelling histories of couples from mixed marriages who opposed the Nazis – and survived the regime." * Publishers Weekly *
"Gripping. . . Stoltzfus persuasively argues that the Rosenstrasse protest contradicts the standard German claim that they could do nothing to stop their government, and indeed most of the German Jews who married non-Jewish Germans survived." * New York Times *
"Here is human interest interwoven with scholarship."
* New Statesman, book of the year 1997 *
"Stoltzfus is a careful and subtle historian and the result of his labours is no less sensational and thoughtprovoking." * The Sunday Telegraph *
"Stoltzfus has created a cogent account, made all the more compelling by the often gripping personal stories of the participants. He pays glowing tribute to their superhuman tenacity ... moreover, he builds a convincing argument." * Jerusalem Post *
"An event buried in the past is resurrected here to shed light on the nature and character of the Nazi regime, the Holocaust, and the German people themselves ... An important work that refracts larger political issues and ethical questions through the prism of a unique event." * Kirkus Reviews *
"Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, not only on the basis of archival material but, more importantly perhaps, on the basis of interviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses ... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes ... Their memory, not least owing to Dr. Stoltzfus's study, will live on ... Fascinating and moving." * Walter Laqueur, from the foreword *
Table of ContentsI. Hitler's theory of power
II. Stories of Jewish-German courtship
III. The politics of race, sex, and marriage
IV. Courage and intermarriage
V. Mischlinge: "A particularly unpleasant occurrence"
VI. Society versus law: German-Jewish families and social restraints on Hitler
VII. Society and law: German-Jewish families and German collaboration with Hitler
VIII. Kristallnacht: Intermarriages and the lessons of Pogrom
IX. At war and at home: Mischlinge in Hitler's army
X. Racial hygiene, Catholic protest, and noncompliance, 1939-41
XI. The Star of David decree: The official story and the intermarried experience
XII. The price of compliance and the destruction of Jews
XIII. Plans to clear the Reich of Jews, and the obstacles of women and "total war"
XIV. Courageous women of Rosenstrasse
XV. Protest, rescue, and resistance
